Using Custom Textures in Dolphin

Using custom textures in Dolphin allows you to give the game a fresh feel; changing HUD skins, texture quality, or just making things look dumb. For example, here is a screenshot of what my game looks like:

Even if my style of texture mods isn't your cup of tea, the point is that you can basically change the appearance of anything in the game.

Step 1: Settings
First of all, you need to enable the Custom Texturessetting in Dolphin. You can find this under the Advancedtab in yourGraphicssettings:
Whilst you're here, also enable the Dump Textures setting - we'll need this to figure out which files to replace (you can disable it when you're done).

Step 2: Finding your Game ID
Depending upon which ISO for Phantasy Star Online you're using, your Game ID will be different.
It's important that you know what your Game ID is so that we can be sure you're using the right folders later on.

To find out what it is, right-click the PSO EPISODE I&IIentry in your Dolphin game list, and select Properties:
Then, go to the Infotab and you'll be able to see yourGame ID - take a note of this for later steps (especially if you have a lot of games on Dolphin).
Here we can see that my Game IDis GPOP8P- this is unique to the European copy of PSO.

Step 3: Locating the texture folders
Next, we need to locate the folders where Dolphin:

Stores our game's Dumped Textures

Stores our game's Custom Textures

First, navigate to your Dolphin Emulatorfolder - this is usually located in the Documents/My Documentsfolder.
It should look something like this inside:
There are two noteworthy folders here:

Dump (Dumped Textures)- if this folder does not exist yet; it will once you've played your game for a while with theDump Texturessetting enabled.

Load (Custom Textures) - if this folder does not exist yet; create it yourself.

Within the Dumpfolder you should find another folder with the same name as your Game ID. Inside is where Dolphin will dump any textures (as a.pngfile) that the game attempts to load as long as the Dump Texturessetting is still enabled.
What is important here are the filenamesfor each texture - in order to successfully replace any of these textures, you need tocreate an image file with the exact same name.

Step 4: Replacing Textures
Now, navigate to the Texturesfolder inside your Loadfolder - from here you should be able to see another folder with the same name as your Game ID.
This is where we must place all of your custom texture files in order for Dolphin to load them.

Your custom texture file must:

Have the EXACT same name as an existing texture

Be a .png format image

Be the same dimensions as the texture being replaced

So, the easiest way to achieve this is to simply copy a texture file from the Dumpfolder over into the Load folder, and then modify it with your preferred image-editing software of choice!
Alternatively, place an image file you've previously prepared or downloaded, and rename it appropriately (see step 5).

Step 5: Using existing skins from PSO:BB
Many years ago, there used to be a dedicated skinning community for PC versions of PSO. And fortunately, archives of their creations can still be found online! One of my favorites being Univers-PS, which contains an enormous range of skins for everything from weapons & mags, to HUDs and graphical effects.

However, upon downloading any of these packs and extracting them, you'll likely find that they're in a foreign format - a.prsfile.
In order to access the images contained inside, we'll need to make use of the Schthack VMT tool.
Once you've downloaded this tool and opened it, access the Loadoption from the Filemenu and open up your .prsfile. You should now be able to see a list of the images contained and preview them:

Now, highlight the image you need to extract and from the Imagemenu, select Export.
Alternatively, if you require all of the images, just use the Export Alloption.

Then, from theSave as type menu, make sure you select Windows Bitmap Format:
Then hit Save.

You will now have a series of .bmpimages (or just one, depending upon which option you just used).
But as mentioned before, Dolphin uses the .pngformat. Fortunately, converting from one to the other is extremely easy - simply open up the file in any image-editing software and re-save it as a .pnginstead.
Once you've done this, copy the files to your Load/Textures/Game IDfolder and rename them to their appropriate names!

Our Support Team

Gal da Val

About Us

Gal da Val is a private Phantasy Star Online server, dedicated to the Nintendo GameCube version.
We focus on building a close community and preserving the original charm of the game.
Support versions include PSO Ep I and II (USA), PSO Ep I and II Plus (USA), and PSO Ep I and II EU (PAL)